Former Goldman Sachs hedge fund manager and crypto billionaire Mike Novogratz has recently weighed in on the state of the crypto market amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war crisis.
Speaking to Bloomberg on Tuesday, March 1, Novogratz said that the war between Russia and Ukraine will serve as a potential boost for Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies while turning people away from the US dollar.
Russia has been facing severe sanctions with the world isolating the aggressor from the global financial system SWIFT. As a result, the Russian ruble has lost 40% of its value against the USD over the last week, falling to a multi-decade low. On the other hand, Ukraine has also reduced the use of local currency and has started accepting donations in cryptocurrencies to finance its war against Russia.
Novogratz believes that such sanctions and restrictions are likely to push people to adopt decentralized currency. However, he made it clear that this does not mean that Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies serve as a tool to avoid sanctions. During his interview, the founder of Galaxy Digital Holdings said:
“Essentially, we have never had a group of nations seize real estate from Russian tycoons. This sends a message: I want to have money that lives outside of traditional power.”
Bitcoin decouples from the stock market
The crypto market witnessed a heavy beating following the Russian invasion of Ukraine last week. However, in the last two days, we have witnessed a major change in trend. On Monday, Bitcoin and the broader crypto market posted double digital gains.
On the other hand, the stock market continued to fall. This shows that Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies have been decoupling from risky assets. Over the past week, this is how Bitcoin’s correlation with Nasdaq has played out.
On the other hand, while the Russian ruble faces a collapse, the Russians are aggressively moving towards cryptocurrencies. Russian ruble trading volumes for Bitcoin have spiked 3 times over the past week, on cryptocurrency exchange Binance.
My latest: Ruble trading pair volumes surges on Binance after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
Prior to invasion, average daily volumes in February were $11M
Since invasion average volumes stand at $35.8M pic.twitter.com/797BKOi9hI
— Frank Chaparro (@fintechfrank) March 1, 2022
At press time, Bitcoin is trading at $43,777 with a market capitalization of $837 billion. If the price of BTC holds at $45,000 at the close, we can see some real upside potential here.
#bitcoin double bottom pattern in play! IF we break then line of resistance then the break out could send BTC back into the mid 50k range! Only valid on break of the top line. pic.twitter.com/9XVimEra5c
— Lark Davis (@TheCryptoLark) March 2, 2022